Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 215 | Page 68

for this car that was issued to Leonard
Quamenn back in 1940 or 1941. That title is
an important and valuable part of the history of this car so I have not yet transferred
ownership to my name. I can do that and
have the Montana DMV return the old title
to me. I can also apply for a completely
new title. That process only costs $12.00
and takes about two weeks to get the new
title. The problem is that with Model A
Fords that have the serial number on the
top of the frame and under the body, the
Montana DMV requires that some goofy
non-Ford number be used at least at the
start of the title application process.
Since other states handle this problem
with Model A serial numbers differently, I
have decided to work with the new owner
on options regarding a new title if they
even want one. I would not encourage
anyone to ever drive this beast on a public
road anyway for several reasons. The first
and main reason is that this vehicle is completely unique and can not be repaired or
replaced if it is ever damaged. The second
reason is that this vehicle is a hazard on the

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road because it literally stops traffic. The
third reason is that this vehicle currently has
no brakes whatsoever and may never have
had good brakes since it was converted so
many years ago. I will address this brake issue later.
The original title is for a 1930 Ford convertible coupe with an engine number that
is of June 1930 vintage and about the right
vintage for this car. I assume the number
on the title matches the frame number on
this car. The engine in this car is from a 1929
Model A Ford so it is obviously a replacement engine. Most (like over 75%) of Model
A’s I find, have owned or seen have had
at least one engine swap at some time in
their past. It is even harder to find a commercially used Model A like this that still has
it’s original engine because those vehicles
were used harder than the typical Model
A passenger car was. Back in the 30’s and
40’s, it was much less expensive to install a
good running used engine than it was to
have one rebuilt due to the work required
in re-babbiting the main and connecting
rod bearings.
Please note that the photo that shows
the left side of the engine shows an electric

heater installed in the water inlet casting.
I have never seen one like this before and
assume this it was built by the handy blacksmith that converted this car. Please also
note that original two blade fan is still on
this beast. I suspect this car was generally
used only in cold weather so nobody felt
that a 4 blade fan was necessary for better
cooling. The paint on the right hood top
is not as good as on the left side hood top
so I suspect that there may have been a
minor carburetor fire on that side at one
time even though I have never known of a
Model A Ford to have a carburetor fire.
It appears that nobody ever even
attempted to make brakes work on the
rear wheels. That may have been because
Model T’s had only cast iron brake shoes
inside the rear axle drums because they
were only used for parking brakes. The
service brake was inside the transmission
on all stock Model T and TT Ford vehicles.
This conversion may never have had good
brakes because one Lindsay Montana
resident mentioned that Leonard drove
this car into the post office there one time.
That same person also mentioned that
Leonard enjoyed tipping a few now and
then so that may also have been a factor in
the post office building colliding with him.
That person also mentioned that the local
residents referred to this car as being the
“beast” or the “tank” and usually pulled of
the road when they saw Leonard coming
at them with this “beast”.
Another Lindsay resident recalled that
Leonard got stuck in a snow drift on main
street one day. He recruited a few guys
from the local pub to help push him out
of the drift. Supposedly one helper was
pushing from behind the car and did not
get out of the way in time when Leonard
decided to back up and take another run
at the drift. Leonard backed over that guy
who was not hurt because of the soft
snow, wide tires and relatively light car.
The helper was not hurt but did scream at
Leonard when he was under the middle of
the car to keep Leonard from runn [